The modern theory of heat engines started in the 19th century when James Watt discovered that heat could be converted to work in 1769 [1]. In 1824, Nicolas-Leonard-Sadi Carnot published a paper, describing a principle for engines that could have maximum efficiency [1, 2, 3]. The principle is illustrated in FIG. 1, where a high temperature heat source (reservoir) 110 has a temperature of, Th, and a low temperature heat source (reservoir) 120 has a temperature, Tl, where Th>Tl. The engine absorbs an amount of heat energy, Q1, from the high temperature reservoir 110, converts a part of it to work, W, by a working device (e.g. a generator or engine) 140, and deposits the rest of the heat energy, Q2, at the low temperature reservoir 120 with temperature Tl. All modern heat engines and many other heat-converting devices such as refrigerators and air conditioners use the same Carnot principle. The efficiency for Carnot type of engine, η, is equal to:
                    η        =                  1          -                                                    T                l                                            T                h                                      .                                              (        1        )            The maximum efficiency obtained in existing Carnot engines is about 50% [4] for practical temperatures and reasonable energy consumption. For conventional technologies, the heat-transferring medium can be recycled while the heat energy output at the low temperature reservoir 120, Q2, is discarded outside, resulting in energy waste.
Therefore, a heretofore unaddressed need exists in the art to address the aforementioned deficiencies and inadequacies.